The Arcane series on Netflix was incredibly good so I was inspired to bring Jayce's cosplay to life including his iconic hammer.
Despite limited reference and tutorials available online, I was determined to create the Arcane version of the hammer. With a lot of hard work, creativity, and a little bit of trial and error, I was able to craft a Jayce hammer that I am proud to show off. In this article, I will share my journey of crafting the Jayce hammer :
Reference and template
To start my project as always I search for tutorial or model online. unfortunately as the show was quit recent I found nothing, even the standard tutorial for Jayce cosplay ( game version ) where only a few. to I did everything myself.
search for reference image from the show, the game skin and some 3D model done by other artist. with the reference I manage to decide the overall size I needed. since I'm a bit tall (1m84) the hammer as to be scaled proportional so I end up deciding to have the hammer be 2m tall and around 1 m wild for the head ) .
From the reference I hand-draw the template for the hammer headpiece and reported it on 4mm EVA foam
I reported the pattern 8 times , 2 per "wings" for the 4 wings so that it can be open in canon form. I use some thine wood plank form in T shape to hold the design and have some solid skeleton to manage the opening mechanism. add a hinge to make it openable like a butterfly.
3D design and Print
for the more complex part I use 3D printer to get the proper shape. so I use Blender to design : the circular center in the head, the "lamp" part underneath and the bottom "pointy" part.
first I intended to print it into one block, but it was to big for the small 3D printer I have, so it I cut it into smaller pieces, print and glue them together. ( printing in one block will result in a more robust especially for the lamp part that hold a lot of weight from the head, but it require a tall 3D printer)
You can find all the design in my dedicated Thingiverse collection : https://www.thingiverse.com/vincentcosplay/collections/jayce-cosplay-hammer
Assemble the head
After 3Dprint I try to assemble the head, with the lighting mechanism and opening one.
I initially wanted to use string and wheel to pull the head "wings" and open it from the handle. but the force needed into the string to pull the wings apart was a bit much and it open it so quick that it breaks a lot of things everytime, Also I had nowhere to correctly pull the line without it being obvious an a big motion out of the handle. So I abandoned the idea and just stick to manually open the head into cannons position (doesn't affect photo shooting, but I just can't make the open effect for video )
I also put LED inside the head, the lamp part and the bottom and some transparent but not clear plastic sheets to diffuse the light.
I use some 12V LED Strips I have, it was a mistake, it's so difficult to find portable 12V battery that I had to use 4holder of 2 AA (1.5V) battery connected in series, and I was to big to be store in the handel so I have to had it to the head ( and it added some weight to the head that was already quit heavy) if you can it's better to use 5V LED and to find a pocket battery to put in the handle, to balance some weight.
Create the Hammer handle
For the handle I use a Standard 2m PVC pipe class 7 ( 32mm outer diameter ) cut into 4different 30cm section and attache with the according PVC socket coupling. on top of the socket coupling I add some small 3D printed cone for better look. it's important to keep the socket coupling size uncut to keep a good solidity between each pipe piece. ( As you can see on the photo at the bottom the gold to grey join was slighly bend and couldn7t hold the strength of all the above correctly, so I remove it and use a full size socket coupling, it's less accurate compare to the character, but it hold in place better )
add some strap ( like the one for tennis racquet ) around the handle part that I need to hold and screw a left over pipe for the canon mode handel to keep the mobility of close and open possition.
Final touche
Add some details, couple of bolt to secure the head in place. and that's it.
I Velcro tape the small bending arm going from the head cog ( I first intended to glue them but I always fell off during transportation and when putting the hammer on the ground )
and add a transparent PVC pipe in the lamp head part to not put pressure on the 3D strip.
Overall I think the hammer is slightly to big, It's difficult to move around in convention or for shooting , if done again, I would done it 10% smaller probably
